Whether we’re in a booming market or a recession there will be a lot of competitors that come and ultimately go out of business. As sad as it is for that company and their staff it is something you can take advantage of to grow and improve your own business. So you’ve just heard one of your competitors has gone out of business? Setup a competitor campaign in Google Ads and Bing targeting your competitors’ brand name, domain name and any other searches that may be done such as for their login page. Ensure your ads speak to your unique offer for those customers and take people through to the targeted landing page which speaks just to them. Some of the things you could negotiate to purchase include: Buying the entire business. Buying the domain name which you can then redirect to your offer landing page for any prospects or customers still typing it in over the coming month. Buying the rights to send out your offer in an email to all of their customers. Start low with your offers, especially if it’s for something a liquidator is unlikely to know the value of such as website content or a domain name. Run your competitors website through a backlink analysis tool such as Ahrefs or Majestic which will give you a list of each and every website linking to them.
Whether we’re in a booming market or a recession there will be a lot of competitors that come and ultimately go out of business. As sad as it is for that company and their staff it is something you can take advantage of to grow and improve your own business.
So you’ve just heard one of your competitors has gone out of business? Now what?
Well, there are eight main tactics I would get started on straight away to make the most of that opportunity.
1. Create a unique offer for their customers
It won’t be long before a lot of their customers lose confidence with the business if it is going south, or are forced to move to a new provider if they’re ceasing services. Your goal is to make sure that for the vast majority of those customers, you’re the best option available.
One way to do that is to create a unique offer for those customers. It may be something like matching the competitors pricing or features for the first 6 months, honoring their gift cards or credit, it may even be the first few months free while they’re in transition. Whatever you select, if it’s an attractive offer, just for those customers and it looks like you’re doing it to “help them out” it can be very effective.
To make the most of the opportunity, ensure you create a dedicated landing page speaking to those customers and the offer you’re giving them and include a comparison table so they know how you compare. One of the biggest fears the customers will have is the transition period, so your landing page should also speak to how easy it will be to migrate and the support you’ll offer to make it a simple process.
Whether it’s existing customers or new prospects – there will still be a lot of people searching for your competitors’ brand name and it’s important you’re there front and center. Setup a competitor campaign in Google Ads and Bing targeting your competitors’ brand name, domain name and any other searches that may be done such as for their login page. The clicks from these keywords will be extremely cheap in comparison to your generic keywords and as these customers and prospects have no option but to select another provider they can be really effective. Ensure your ads speak to your unique offer for those customers and take people through to the targeted landing page which speaks just to them.
It can be a great time to also review your other search campaign budgets and ensure they’re set high enough as if the competitor was big – the search volume for your generic keywords should all increase as their customers search for alternatives.
Outreach to as many of their customers as you can find via phone, email, in-person – however, you have to do it. Ensure you’re empathetic and let them know you’re just contacting them to help them out for the situation they’re in and make sure that you outline the special offer you have which is just for them.
You’ll have to get creative with how you find their customers – for example, if you offer a software tool you could see every company who is using your competitors tool through websites such as BuiltWith or StackShare.
Other great places to start building your outreach list include prospects that you lost to them, clients listed on their testimonials or case studies pages (you can use the Wayback Machine to view their site if it’s gone offline), clients who have linked to them on provider and supplier pages (found through backlink analysis), clients who have mentioned them on social media, clients who have reviewed them on review…
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